THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1918

ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF THE CITY COMPANIES
BY BRO. H. G. ROSEDALE, P. G. CHAPLAIN, ENGLAND
PART I

IT is obvious that from time immemorial whenever there have been
two workmen at the same trade they have always united together for
mutual assistance and protection against all others. On the arrival
of a third he would only be admitted to friendship on promising to
obey the decision of the majority. This is the spirit underlying
all trade combinations. It is well known that at a very remote
period trade organisations, allied to our Gild system, were in a
very high state of development both in China and India. In India
the caste systems still maintain their power, and there the trader
has his own organisations of a somewhat similar, though more
political, nature than our own early Gilds. No doubt, there was a
far earlier civilisation than the Arian; a civilisation which may
have come from south to north, and which had died possibly more
than a thousand years before the Arian emigration began to sweep
from east to west-- but we cannot do more than trace to some slight
extent the Gild idea as affected by this later form of human
emigration.

Whilst it cannot be disputed that the Far Orient did possess the
primitive forms of our craft Gild, but it was not until these
earlier ideas reached the shores of the Mediterranean and felt the
force of the earlier civilisation upon them, that Gild life
attained to anything like its modern usefulness.

THE FIRST RECORDS

The first records of European Gild life are found in Greece, where,
at least 700 B. C., the Gilds called Eranoi flourished to such an
extent that men of the greatest distinction, such, for instance, as
Lysimachus, the son of Aristides, and Milesius, the son of
Thucydides, were proud to claim membership therein.

Amongst these Eranoi, which, at the same time, like many of our
older Gilds, were burial clubs, numerous trades were represented.
A Gild of Thracian wine merchants, who took Apollo for their patron
and called themselves Keremperoi, mining companies, lessees of
theatres, farmers of taxes, and even privateering companies, all
these formed part of the great social life of the-Greeks. Moreover,
the rules of these Societies were strangely similar to the laws
which for centuries controlled our English mercantile fraternities.

From Greece the spirit of the Eranoi passed to Rome and produced
the world-renowned "Collegia Opificum." At what date these took
their beginning it is now impossible to say, but it is a matter of
general knowledge that the workmen of Rome, almost from the first
days of civilised society in Italy, were associated together in
trade groups. Plutarch, indeed, ascribes the origin of the
"Collegia" to Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, 714-643 B.
C., and mentions among the various Trade Gilds of the time
musicians, goldsmiths, dyers, shoemakers, carriers, coppersmiths
and porters, all the remaining trades of this time being united
into one Gild.

Whatever may be the degree of truth as to the matter of dates, it
is interesting to note that the regulations both of the Eranoi
(sometimes called "Thaiasoi"), as well as those of the "Collegia,"
were based on the same underlying principles. They were governed by
a president, an elder, a secretary, a treasurer, and a council. All
these officials, with the exception of the president, being elected
annually, and it is interesting in these enlightened days to note
that, like the early English Gilds, they sometimes admitted women
to their circle, in spite of the fact that there were other
communities for women only.

THE "COLLEGIA"

The "Collegia" went a step further. They were generally established
by some act of the ruling power, either a decree of the Emperor, or
a "senatus consultum," representing the Charter of which the City
Companies today are so proud. They, too, were governed by a
president and master, a treasurer, a steward, sometimes a clerk,
but always associated with "decuriones," a body akin to the Court
of Assistants, so important in the fifteenth and following
centuries.

In Greece, and particularly in Italy, these powerful communities of
traders and workmen met the new forces of developing religious
life. At first Religion was monotheistic, then polytheistic, and
afterwards, when the Gilds became most closely associated with
religious ideas, Christian.

At a very early date each Collegium had its common cult and common
sacrifices or services at stated times. It employed priests or
sacrificial officers, and was generally associated with some
particular temple. It had its "curia" or meeting-house, where its
business was transacted and where all the members met both for
periodic feasts and for general meetings. There was an "arca" or
chest containing the revenues, contributions, and fines accruing to
the Gild. Each college had its archives, banners, and, above all,
exercised the jus sodalitii, or power over its archives in the same
way that our Craft Gilds did during the fourteenth, fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Every candidate on his admission to the
Society was obliged to take a special oath and to pay the regular
tributum or contribution towards the expenses of the "collegium." 
FRATERNAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS

On the death of a member, the Gild gave a public funeral to the
deceased, when every brother was expected to attend. The secular
side was marked by the "cara cognitio," the analogue of election
days in our present Gilds. To mark the fraternal and religious
aspects of Gild life, great emphasis was laid on the half-yearly
visits to the tombs of departed members of the brotherhood, on
whose graves they scattered roses in the summer and violets in the
winter as an offering pleasing to the spirits of the departed; this
practice found its successor in the "masses for the dead," provided
so lavishly by the Gilds at a later period.

Space prevents us from giving a summary of the rules, but we are
the fortunate possessors of the laws governing such a Gild founded
at Lanuvium in the time of Adrian and dedicated to Antinous and
Diana. It was this highly developed product of Oriental
fraternities, moulded and developed by Greek and Latin influence,
that came to England with the Roman invasion. Of this there is just
one piece of interesting evidence left to us in the fact that a
"collegium fabrorum," or Gild of Smiths, was established and
flourished in this country as early as the reign of Claudius
Caesar. This, like all other Roman institutions, received a rude
shock when, after a long period of relatively luxurious existence,
it was forced into the background if not out of existence
altogether by the Saxon invasion of this country.

INFLUENCE OF THE SAXONS

As might have been expected, the Saxon warriors brought with them
their own fraternities, different in many respects to those of
Greco-Roman origin, less orderly, less beneficent, but probably
more political and governmental than those of the Roman settlers.
They were the product of the old blood-brotherhood, which is now so
well recognised a part of the social life in early Saxon and
Scandinavian countries. The Saxon conquerors tried to adapt their
own conceptions of gild life and government largely intermixed with
the idea of family and blood relationships, blood-feuds and
blood-money (wergeld), to the conditions they found in existence,
and as a result produced what are known as Frith Gilds, all of
which may be clearly traced in the laws of Kings Alfred and
Athelstan, but, as might be expected, the inherent strength of the
Latin system prevented the over-bearing and brutal Saxon from
ingrafting his own cruder ideas very deeply on the relatively more
cultured people of this country. There were, however, three highly
important points in which the Romano-British burgess and the Saxon
warrior were agreed. In both systems the public feast was of a
semi-sacred nature. Secondly, the recognition of the duty of
providing religious offerings for the dead was deeply ingrained in
both systems, whilst the "Gildhalla" of the Teuton and the Curia or
Temple of the Roman were to all intents and purposes equally
sacred.

Amongst the many interesting matters connected with the development
of the early Gild-life, none are more interesting than the effects
which the rising wave of Christianity had upon these two currents
of fraternity-life gradually blended into one great stream. Long
before the time of Augustine of Canterbury, Britain had known many
a Christian martyr, and it is evident both from the writings of
Bede and Gildas that Christianity must have been intensely powerful
in these islands at a period shortly after the end of the first
century of our era. The Saxon warriors, with religious conceptions
mostly derived from nature worship, had no place in their scheme
for Christianity. Hence, for a time all Christian influences had to
hide amongst the hills of Wales, in the fastnesses of Cornwall and
the West of England. After Augustine had arrived in England and
obtained so strong a "footing," a warm welcome was accorded him by
the native inhabitants, deeply imbued with early Christian ideals.
The bishops and clergy of the British Church in the West emerged
from their hiding in the West, and Christianity became once more
the vital force in the land. Saxon superstition, like the Roman
Emperors, was compelled to bow before the more spiritual forces of
Christian teaching.

A NEW LIFE AMONG THE PEOPLE

From that day forward a new life sprang up amongst the people of
Britain. Troubled by much internal strife, the Saxon rulers found
it politic to call to their aid the powerful influence of
Christianity in order to assist them in governing their subjects.
The Gilds, on the other hand, would hasten to place themselves
under the protection of the Church, which had now become recognised
as the most powerful combination within the land. This intimate
connection is strongly marked by the fact that from the time of
Athelstan until the reign of Henry VIII, all suits connected with
Gilds or Trading Companies had to be brought before the
Ecclesiastical Courts. Thus the conversion of the Gild to
Christianity, like the conversion of the State, was an easy and
natural consequence. The Christian priest forthwith replaced the
heathen sacrificial officer in the Gild, whilst the "Dies Rosae"
and the "Dies Violae" became masses for the dead and offerings to
the Church.

RELIGION PARAMOUNT

In those days religion was paramount. No Gild could exist without
its Priest or Chaplain, who represented alike State and Church. So
strongly did religion affect national life that after A. D. 600,
Gilds for purely ecclesiastical purposes were not uncommon. There
is every reason to believe that under the fostering influence of
the clergy, by the middle of the eighth century Gilds had become
recognised and popular combinations both for secular and religious
purposes. After the Norman Conquest the English Gilds gradually
reverted to the type of the Roman "Collegium" with this one
difference that the Christian priest occupied a very prominent
place in its economy. At the same time Teutonic influences were not
absent, the payments demanded from the members called "scot" and
"lot" were derived from the "scat" of the Teutonic Gilds, whilst
the old Saxon ideal of blood-brotherhood clearly underlies the
practice of demanding "frank pledge" of the burgesses, and was a
principle of Saxon government which remained up to a comparatively
late date.

(To be continued.)

Talk about those subjects you have had long in your mind, and
listen to what others say about subjects you have studied but
recently.
--O. W. Holmes.

A merry smile, a short mile.
--Douglas Mallock.

